The use of fiber helps the body not overeat

Fiber has amazing properties. One of the products of its collapse enters the brain, helping to control hunger. Moreover, the concentration of "hormones of hunger" in the gastrointestinal tract may not change. This is proved by an experiment with mice, writes New Scientist with reference to the discovery of Gary Frost from the Imperial College London.

It turned out that rodents sitting on fatty foods did not gain weight so quickly if dietary fiber was added to the diet. Frost used a scanner that shows what happens to acetate, the most common fatty acid that is produced in the intestine, with the decomposition of cellulose. It is believed that such fatty acids are metabolized in the liver. However, it turned out that acetate enters the brain, where it stays in the hypothalamus - a zone that controls hunger. When the acetate was injected directly into the brain of rodents, the appetite was also suppressed.

If acetate works in a similar way in people, then fiber can become a universal remedy for obesity. True, according to Frost, an increase in its consumption does not guarantee an increase in the effect. The fact is that a person will have to consume cellulose in enormous quantities.

More promising is the creation of a acetate-based preparation or a change in the fiber itself in order to increase the percentage of fatty acid released in the intestine.